This invention relates to a method and apparatus for winding a web material into a tight roll and more particularly to a method and apparatus for winding a rug about a mandrel driven from one end and discharging the rug from the opposite end of the mandrel while supporting the mandrel not only when the rug is being wound, but also while it is being discharged.
In the carpet and rug manufacturing art, the finished product is generally wound into a roll. Broadloom carpet, because it is generally 12 to 15 feet wide is wound about a paperboard core to preclude bending of the roll, the core remaining with the roll of carpet. Rugs, however, because of their shorter widths, which generally are in the range of 6 to 9 feet, are wound by hand about itself. That is, an initial coil is formed and the rug is rolled by hand about the initial coil so that the outer layers are wrapped about the inner layers from the outside. Thus, the wound rug generally is loose and the edges of the roll are uneven. This, of course, makes it extremely difficult to place wrapping material about the rug roll and increases the overall process time.
It is known in certain arts to wind a roll of web material about a mandrel and thereafter to push the roll off the mandrel. For example, in Benuska U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,682, a web of asphalt material is wound about a mandrel and thereafter pushed off the mandrel by a pusher plate. One problem that is presented with such a construction occurs when the mandrel is driven from one end and is pushed off the opposite end. In order to support the mandrel at both ends while it is rotating and thus during winding, Benuska at the end opposite the driven end provides an end support member which supports the mandrel during the rotation and thereafter pivots away from the end for permitting the roll to be pushed off. Thus, although the mandrel is rotatably supported while the roll is being wound, the bearings at the driven end have a large bending load applied after the end support member is removed from the opposite end. Woffendin U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,247, discloses an apparatus in which the end of the mandrel from which the roll is ejected is mounted in split bearings carried in swing doors, but again when a roll is ejected no support for the bearings at the opposite end is provided. In McKinnon U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,651 a roofing material roll winder is disclosed having an ejector for pushing a roll off a mandrel, but the mandrel does not have outboard bearings.
It is evident that the bearings at the driven end of the mandrel will be short lived unless some means for supporting the mandrel is provided to prevent a cantilevered effect at the driven end and thus to alleviate bending loads on the bearings at the driven end while a roll is being pushed off the end of the end of the mandrel opposite the driven end.